Cadmus
Cadmus was a Phoenician prince and a son of king Agenor and queen Telephassa of Tyre and the brother of Phoenix, Cilix and Europa. History After his sister Europa had been carried off by Zeus from the shores of Phoenicia, Cadmus was sent out by his father to find her, and enjoined not to return without her. Unsuccessful in his search - or unwilling to go against Zeus - he came to Samothrace, the island sacred to the "Great Gods" and the Kabeiroi, whose mysteries would be celebrated also at Thebes. Cadmus did not journey alone to Samothrace; he appeared with his "far-shining" mother Telephassa in the company of his nephew (or brother) Thasus, son of Cilix, who gave his name to the island of Thasos nearby. Cadmus came in the course of his wanderings to Delphi, where he consulted the oracle. He was ordered to give up his quest and follow a special cow, with a half moon on her flank, which would meet him, and to build a town on the spot where she should lie down exhausted. The cow was given to Cadmus by Pelagon, the King of Phocis, and it guided him to Boeotia, where he founded the city of Thebes, and built a temple to the moon goddess where the cow lay down. Intending to sacrifice the cow to Athena, Cadmus sent some of his companions to the nearby Ismenian Spring for water. They were slain by the spring's guardian water-dragon (compare the Lernaean Hydra), which was in turn destroyed by Cadmus, the duty of a culture hero of the new order. By the instructions of Athena, he sowed the dragon's teeth in the ground, from which there sprang a race of fierce armed men, called the Spartoí ("sown"). By throwing a stone among them, Cadmus caused them to fall upon one another until only five survived, who assisted him to build the Cadmeia or citadel of Thebes, and became the founders of the noblest families of that city. The dragon had been sacred to Ares, so the god made Cadmus do penance for eight years by serving him. It was during this penance that he met and married his wife Harmonia. At Thebes, Cadmus and Harmonia began a dynasty with a son Polydorus, and four daughters, Agave, Autonoë, Ino and Semele. At the wedding, whether celebrated at Samothrace or at Thebes, all the gods were present; Harmonia received as bridal gifts a peplos worked by Athena and a necklace made by Hephaestus. This necklace, commonly referred to as the Necklace of Harmonia, brought misfortune to all who possessed it. Notwithstanding the divinely ordained nature of his marriage and his kingdom, Cadmus lived to regret both: his family was overtaken by grievous misfortunes, and his city by civil unrest. Cadmus finally abdicated in favor of his grandson Pentheus, and went with Harmonia to Illyria, to fight on the side of the Encheleans. Later as king, he founded the city of Lychnidos and Bouthoe. Nevertheless, Cadmus was deeply troubled by the ill-fortune which clung to him as a result of his having killed the sacred dragon, and one day he remarked that if the gods were so enamoured of the life of a serpent, he might as well wish that life for himself. Immediately he began to grow scales and change in form. Harmonia, seeing the transformation, thereupon begged the gods to spare him. He was later immortalised, with Harmonia still his wife. Cadmus's descendants ruled at Thebes on and off for several generations, including the time of the Trojan War. Category:Prince Category:Kings Category:Mortals Category:Thebans Category:Descendants Category:Immortals